


We could be bigger and brighter than space

by Skyrissian (ErinacchiLove)



Series: Star Wars Pride [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Finn Calrissian-Skywalker, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Lesbian Rey (Star Wars), M/M, Meeting the Parents, No one is cishet, Non-Binary Rose Tico, Pride Parades, Rey Calrissian-Skywalker, Sort Of, this is a gays only event go home!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 18:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19183534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinacchiLove/pseuds/Skyrissian
Summary: 30 years after the Pride Parade in which her fathers met, Rey is going to introduce her significant other, Rose, to the family.What she didn't think of was how dramatic her family could get.





	We could be bigger and brighter than space

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Pride Month! Here's a sequel to my last year's Pride fic, The most unexpected and wonderful things ♥ I had great fun writing this.
> 
> I retconned two things in this fic: Luke is trans as well as gay, and the setting is more or less our world but with all the Star Wars aliens. Everything else is the same, and you don't necessarily have to read last year's fic to enjoy this one, but I recommend reading it anyway^^
> 
> Title is a beautiful line from "What I Need" by Hayley Kiyoko and Kehlani.
> 
> Enjoy!

“No, seriously, I’ll be fine,” Rey insisted as she ushered her dads towards the parade, practically having to push them both. “I’ll catch up with you at the picnic.”

     Lando caressed his daughter’s hair (or what was left of it – she had insisted on an undercut a few days earlier). “But aren’t you gonna be lonely?”

     Rey shook her head. “I’m meeting Finn and Poe and I’m gonna be with them the whole time until meeting up with you guys at the picnic.”

     “Where _is_ your brother, anyway?” Luke wondered aloud, looking around even though in this crowd you couldn’t find a Wookiee if you tried (and he had first-hand experience on that), much less an average-height young man.

     Rey shrugged. “Sent me a text, said he and Poe are running a little late. But seriously,” Rey pointed at her aunt and uncles, “Aunt Leia, Uncle Han, and Uncle Chewie are waiting. Just go already.”

     After finally seeing her dads disappear into the crowd Rey sighed in relief and headed towards the other side of the plaza where the parade was starting from. It wasn’t often that Rey deliberately wanted to get rid of her dads during the Pride parade, but this year there was a very specific reason why she wanted to do so, and that reason was called Rose Tico. Her dads couldn’t know just yet that she was dating.

     Rose was already waiting for Rey in front of one of the coffee shops, holding a takeaway cup. They looked so different out of their usual oil-stained overalls and messy ponytail. Today Rose looked absolutely phenomenal in their non-binary flag inspired crop top and shorts, with the crop top being yellow and white, and the shorts black with purple pockets. Their hair was on a ponytail but it was classier than usual. Even the hair-tie was in the non-binary flag colors, and it was long enough that the tails were hanging on Rose’s shoulder.

     Rey smiled and walked over. Rose smiled as well when Rey leaned in to kiss them.

     “Careful!” Rose giggled. “I’m holding coffee!”

     Rey pulled back carefully as not to spill anything hot over either of them. “You look amazing,” she said. “I think you’re really gonna impress my dads.”

     “I really hope so,” Rose said with a small blush on their face. “I feel like I’m gonna pass out just from the thought that I’m gonna meet my girlfriend’s dads. I’ve never met the parents of anyone I’ve dated before.”

     “It’s gonna be okay,” Rey assured. “They get a bit dramatic sometimes, especially Dad, but at heart they’re both huge nerds who make dad jokes and get overly romantic with each other. Nothing to be really afraid of.”

     Rose let out a shaky laugh and took a sip of their coffee. “By the way, you look really beautiful too.”

     “Thanks,” Rey said. She had decided to make an effort for her dads’ anniversary – though her idea of effort probably wasn’t what people usually associated with the word. She was wearing a light purple cold-shoulder T-shirt with a heart-shaped pin in the lesbian flag colors, ripped jeans, combat boots, and a flannel jacket tied around her waist. But since the only person whose opinion Rey actually cared about, Lando, had said it was okay, it was okay. End of story. The undercut had been a bit of a shock at first, but after Rey had told Lando that he could still style it, he had grabbed the razor.

     Rose finished their coffee and asked, “Are we still waiting for someone?”

     “Yeah,” Rey answered. “Finn and Poe are late as per usual. But it’s not as if we don’t have time.”

     Rose made a face. “Yeah, I feel you. Paige is chronically late too. I swear one day she’ll miss the birth of her own child too if she’s not careful.”

     Since Rey had no idea how long they’d have to wait, she suggested they’d go get some more coffee. Rose was more than accepting of this idea. They said they had slept only about four hours since they had procrastinated again and left sewing the clothes to the last minute. The crop top had been a piece of cake but Rose had had to start the shorts over and over several times as the fabric had refused to cooperate.

     Finally, when they were almost finished with their iced coffees, their patience was rewarded. Finn and Poe had finally made it. Neither had opted anything too flashy, favoring pins with bi flag and rainbow flag in their shirts and jackets instead, respectively. Finn had changed the pattern of his cornrows, Rey noted. It had been a few weeks since they had last seen each other. College and work were very time-consuming.

     Rey walked over to hug her brother and said, “About damn time you two show up.”

     “Nice to see you too,” Finn answered, shoving Rey’s shoulder in a playful brotherly manner. “You try finding a place to park your speeder in this crowd. I swear we had to walk at least two miles to get here.”

     “Ah.” That explained a whole lot. “Sorry.”

     Poe splashed his face with water from his bottle and wiped his brow. “It’s okay. Shall we?”

     Rey and Rose nodded, and the four of them joined the crowd.

     “So where did you lose Dad and Papa?” Finn asked after they had walked for five minutes or so. “Thought you’d be with them and Aunt Leia, Uncle Han, and Uncle Chewie.”

     “I sent them ahead to the picnic with everyone,” Rey answered, holding her rainbow flag higher. “I’m gonna introduce Rose to them there and we can have a sort of a joint anniversary celebration.”

     Finn halted and stared at Rey for a moment as if she had just said something that made no sense whatsoever.

     “Oh, _great_ ,” he said. “Apparently your anniversary gift to them is another trip to ER.”

     Rey made a face. “No, I’m introducing them to my significant other. No one’s gonna end up in ER.”

     Finn scoffed. “So you’ve forgotten what happened when I introduced Poe to them?”

     Oh, shit. Rey suddenly had a vivid flashback of that day.

     “Maybe they’ve calmed down since then?” Rey suggested.

     Another scoff. “And maybe tomorrow Dad tells us that he no longer thinks capes are the most stylish thing ever.”

     “I’m fucked,” Rey groaned. “I’m actually super fucked.”

     “What happened?” Rose asked, lowering their non-binary flag. “Also maybe we should get out of the way. We’re kinda blocking everyone else.”

     Finn had a very pained look on his face as they moved over to the sidewalk, and Poe sighed before he started to tell. “So, it was like three years ago. Finn took me to meet Lando and Luke and it was some special occasion–”

     “Papa’s birthday,” Rey interjected.

     Poe pointed his index finger at Rey. “–yeah, Luke’s birthday. Anyway, Finn was introducing me, and told them I was his roommate. And that was when Rey, being the memelord she is, said–”

     “’Oh my god, they were roommates’,” Finn said with a tone that left nothing to speculation. Rey, to her credit, had the courtesy to look ashamed.

     “And that was when Lando dropped a hot baking tray full of enchiladas fresh from the oven on Luke’s foot,” Poe concluded. “The tray included. The burns weren’t pretty. We now call the whole thing ‘The Enchilada Incident’.”

     “It wasn’t as bad as it sounds,” Rey interjected upon seeing the terror on Rose’s face.

     “It was _exactly_ as bad as it sounds,” Finn sighed. “The thing just is that our dads can’t stay cool about stuff like my and Rey’s love life. They literally threw a party the day Rey came out because ‘yay, neither of our kids is a cishet!’”

     Rey nodded with a small shrug. “Yeah, sometimes it’d be nice if they could react to stuff with a reasonable amount of excitement. Speaking of cishets,” she added to Finn, “Kyle is still suffering from Cishetus Incellitis and is a no-show today.”

     Finn grimaced. “Gotta admit, that’s a bit of a relief. Poe and I really didn’t feel like seeing him today and hearing his stupid comments.”

     Poe shook his head as a confirmation.

     “Who’s Kyle?” Rose asked as the group re-joined the parade.

     “My and Rey’s cousin,” Finn answered. “His real name is Ben, but he joined some emo band a while back and insists on being called his stage name, Kylo Ren.”

     “Which is dumb as shit,” Rey added, “so Finn and I have started to call him Kyle as a joke.”

     “He’s also a bit homophobic,” Poe said, “which is more than a little ironic considering his parents are both bi. You know Leia Organa?”

     Rose nodded. “Of course. Who in the LGBT community wouldn’t know Senator Organa after all she’s done for us?”

     “Aunt Leia is his mom,” Finn said. “But Kyle is mostly harmless, just annoying sometimes. It’s not like he’s actually violent or participates in anti-gay movements. He just makes stupid comments every now and then.”

     Rose let out a nervous chuckle. “Hard to imagine Senator Organa having a son like that.”

     “We are all still very shocked about it,” Rey said with a tone that she might’ve used when giving a eulogy at a funeral, making everyone laugh.

     The parade ran its course without any incidents, and this was the first year Rey noted that there were no bigots yelling slurs anywhere around. That was a pleasant surprise; usually there was always at least one. Maybe they had finally got a life. Next task was trying to find the rest of the family in the crowd. Usually they tried to pick a place that was easily spotted, but that wasn’t always manageable.

     After searching for about ten minutes Rey put her rainbow flag in Rose’s bag, next to their non-binary flag, pulled out her phone from her pocket, and sent a text to the family’s group chat.

 

     Rey sent:

     _where you guys at?_

_we’re here_

 

A few seconds later came an answer.

 

     Auntsoka sent:

     _Big rock lots of trees near the toilets_

_Can’t miss_

    

     Rey sent:

     _cool. we’re there in a moment_

 

Rey relayed the directions to the others, and true enough it didn’t take them long to locate a big rock near the toilets.

     “Kinda surprising Aunt ‘Soka decided to come too,” Finn said. “I thought she said she’d pass because Aunt Kaeden couldn’t make it this year.”

     “Same,” Rey answered. “Guess the temptation for a good party was too much to resist or something.”

     “Hold on,” Rose interjected. “Who exactly am I gonna meet right now?”

     Finn and Rey peered at the picnic ensemble.

     “Our dads, Aunt Leia, Uncle Han, Uncle Chewie, Aunt Ahsoka… looks like Aunt Maz is there too,” Finn listed. “Be cool, none of them bites.”

     Rose’s face turned from its usual light tan to almost ashen. “I thought I was just gonna meet your dads,” they said to Rey. “No one said anything about your entire extended family!”

     “It’s gonna be okay,” Rey assured them. “They’re all nice people. Just be yourself.”

     Rose stared at Rey incredulously. “What kind of garbage advice is that?! I actually want your folks to like me!”

     “Too late to back down now,” Poe said. “They spotted us. Come on, it’s gonna hurt just this once and then it’s done, like ripping off a band-aid.”

     “I’ll hold your hand all the way,” Rey promised, offering her hand. Rose was trembling as they took it and the group walked over to the picnic ensemble.

     The picnic looked like it always did, even if Aunt Kaeden wasn’t there (she hadn’t been able to get time off the hospital). This year the setting was even more lavish than usual though, what with Lando and Luke’s thirtieth anniversary.

     “Okay, now I’m getting jitters too,” Rey admitted.

     “Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t see any hot baking trays anywhere,” Finn said in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn’t work. Rose was squeezing Rey’s hand, and Rey squeezed back, both looking like they were about to pass out any second.

     “Hey, you made it!” Lando greeted the group and raised a bottle of champagne. “We were just about to pop this.”

     “I’ll take that, Dad!” Finn exclaimed and rushed to grab the bottle. He sat down on the picnic blanket holding the bottle like he was scared that it was going to explode. Poe sat next to him after greeting everyone quickly.

     Rey cleared her throat. “Um, everyone?” she said. “I’d like you all to meet Rose.”

     Rose waved with an awkward smile on their face. “Hi.”

     Luke frowned for a moment. “That’s the non-binary flag, isn’t it?”

     “Huh?” Rose blinked.

     “The colors of your clothes,” Luke clarified.

     Rose turned to whisper into Rey’s ear, “I love your father,” before they turned back again and said, “Yeah, that’s right. My pronouns are they and them. I’m so happy you recognized the colors!”

     “I know my trans flags,” Luke grinned, pointing at the trans flag next to a pan flag and a rainbow flag in a vase in the middle of the blanket. “Great to have another non-cis person around now that Kaeden had to pass this year,” he added, standing up to shake hands with Rose. “I’m Luke, Rey’s father. Nice to meet you.”

     “You too,” Rose answered. “Rey’s told me a lot about you.”

     “Hopefully nothing too bad,” Lando said, also getting up to shake Rose’s hand. “She’s got my sense for dramatics after all. I’m Lando, Rey’s other father. Nice to meet you, Rose. How come we haven’t heard about you before?” he asked, giving Rey a pointed look.

     Rey rolled her eyes. “I was just getting to that. Rose and I met at last year’s Pride, and after meeting a couple of times after that we… we’re dating. And the only reason I didn’t tell you sooner was because I wanted to tell you here and now, since in a way this is our _first_ anniversary. And because you guys always tell me and Finn how you met at a Pride parade I thought–”

     “That,” Luke interjected, “is the sweetest thing you’ve ever told us, Sunshine.” Next to him Lando had covered his mouth but it looked like he was getting choked up.

     It took about five seconds before Rey properly registered what her papa had just said. “Seriously?”

     “That’s it?” Finn added, putting the champagne bottle down. “You’re not gonna freak out?”

     “Why would we?” Lando asked, his voice a bit strained. Yeah, he was definitely getting emotional.

     “The Enchilada Incident, anyone?”

     There was snickering around the picnic ensemble, especially from Han’s direction, and Lando and Luke looked very unimpressed.

     “That was three years ago,” Luke said, “and we do learn from our mistakes. Though I do see why you wanted to take that champagne bottle.”

     “Which we can probably pop now,” Leia put in. “It’s not good for champagne to get too warm.”

     And with that they toasted first to Lando and Luke’s thirtieth anniversary, and after that to Rey and Rose’s first. The words “with hopefully many more to come” went unsaid, but the more Rey watched Rose to interact with her family throughout the day, the more she could see herself spending the rest of her life with them. Rose fit right in with the rest of the family, as though they had always been a part of it.

     “So, what anniversary are you celebrating?” Rose asked at one point. “First meeting? First date? First kiss?”

     “Yeah!” Luke answered, and Rey almost had her orange juice down the wrong pipe upon seeing Rose’s face. Finn had to clap her back before her breathing was back to normal.

     “Plus one other thing,” Lando added. “We kinda did about six months’ worth of dating in one night.”

     “And that’s way too much information,” Han put in. “You don’t need to scare the kids.”

     Rose leaned against Rey’s shoulder and said, “Your family is insane. I think I love it already.”

     Rey pressed a kiss on Rose’s hair. The whole day had been a success. No one had been injured and everyone liked Rose. Things really couldn’t get much better from this. Even the ride home after they had walked Finn and Poe back to their speeder before going to Lando and Luke’s was great. There were no awkward questioning or anything like that, just pleasant small-talk. Rose talked about their job as a mechanic (“Doesn’t pay much, but I’m doing what I love.”) and Lando invited them over to Rey’s birthday dinner that was going to be in about a week.

     “Of course, you’re more than welcome to stay for dinner tonight as well,” he added.

     “Thanks,” Rose said, “but my place is just around the corner and I’m having dinner with my folks already.”

     Rose’s family’s house was only a short drive away, and even with knowing they were going to go out after the weekend Rey took her sweet time to say bye.

     “Next time it’s my turn to meet your folks,” she said with a wide smile.

     “Don’t be disappointed when they’re not as nuts as your dads,” Rose teased and stood up on tiptoes to kiss Rey. “I had a great time. Can’t wait for your birthday.”

     “I can’t wait for Monday,” Rey countered and leaned in to kiss Rose again. It was clearly one kiss too many because the next thing they heard was Rose’s mother’s shout.

     “Rose! Bữa tối trở lạnh! Đến bên trong!”

     Rose pulled her lips off of Rey’s and answered, “Trong một phút!” They turned back to Rey and said, “Okay, now I really have to go. Mom really doesn’t like it if her food has to wait.”

     “Okay,” Rey agreed and let go of Rose. “We’ll chat in WhatsApp later anyway.”

     “Yep.” Rose looked past Rey at her dads’ speeder. “Thanks for the great day!”

     “You’re welcome!” Lando and Luke answered.

     With that Rose went inside, and Rey returned to the speeder. She sat on the backseat with a sigh. This was so stupid. She and Rose really would chat later; there was no point in missing them already. After a couple of minutes of silence Rey huffed and said, “Right, time for your brutally honest opinions over my significant other. Fire away.”

     “Marry them,” Luke said instantly. “Rose is a keeper.”

     Rey snorted a laugh. “Be serious. We’ve only been together for a year.”

     “We are serious, Sunshine,” Lando said. “Do you really think we missed the way you looked at Rose, or the way they looked at you? That was love right there, the kind that lasts.”

     Rey sat up in her seat. “How do you know? I mean, I hope this is the real thing, but…”

     “How many times do you think I’ve caught Luke staring at me with that exact same sappy look in his eyes?” Lando laughed, and Luke blushed. Rey rolled her eyes. Thirty years, and sometimes they still acted like a newly fallen in love couple. It was very exhausting and very adorable at the same time. Even in all its craziness Rey would’ve never traded it for anything.

     “In all seriousness,” Luke said after a while, “the real question is, are you willing to make an effort in your relationship with Rose? Your dad and I have been together all these years because we were, and still are, making an effort.”

     Rey considered this for a moment. Yeah, it was true that she and Rose had only known each other for a year and dated for about eleven months, but the answer was very simple.

     “Yeah,” she answered. “I want that. I’m ready for it.”

     It wasn’t going to be perfect. No relationship was. But Rey had the best example to follow, and she was sure Rose was willing to make an effort as well.

     Sometimes it was just that simple.

**Author's Note:**

> Rose and their mother are speaking Vietnamese (by the courtesy of Kelly Marie Tran being Vietnamese), which I don't speak and I had to use Google Translate for it. If anyone who actually does speak Vietnamese reads this and spots any mistakes, please correct me~
> 
> "Bữa tối trở lạnh! Đến bên trong!" = "Dinner is getting cold! Come inside!"  
> "Trong một phút!" = "In a minute!"
> 
> Comments are appreciated^^


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